RADIO DRAMAS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 60, 8 September 1938, Page 28

RADIO DRAMAS

A MONTAGUE STORY

Not always have the adaptations of short stories for the radio been successful, and the reason for this may lie not only in tjie methods adopted by the radio-writer, but also in the ! type of story itself. The stories for the most part have been of two kinds —the static tale and the type that can only be described as possessing a tapestry quality. Which type is the toest story for radio purposes is still a matter of doubt, but listeners will shortly have the opportunity of hearing an adaptation of a story of the latter kind by an outstanding modern writer. This is "Two or Three Witnesses," by C. E. Montague, which the N.B.S. has recently purchased. To many people, especially those interested in the theatre and the English drama, C. E. Montague will need no introduction. His death in 1928 deprived the English tneatre and English journalism of one of its finest critics and writers of recent years. Born in London, he was educated at the City of London School and later won an exhibition scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, from which he went north to join the staff of the "Manchester Guardian," a paper that for many years supplied the best dramatic criticism in England. Montague was following in the footsteps of such writers and critics as Oliver Elton, W. T. Arnold, and Allan Monkhouse. He began at once to receive recognition for his brilliant dramatic criticism written under the initials "C.E.M." An outstanding feature of his criticism was the fact that he could write well on any branch of the theatre and he took as much care in his observation of a pantomime as he did of a classical play. Always his censorship sparkled with the wit that came from an effervescent personality. Earnest lovers of drama know well his I volume of criticism, "Dramatic Values," which contains some of the finest writing on the art of. the theatre printed in recent years. Many readers, too, will know his volumes of short stories and his novels. The story, "Two or Three Witnesses," is included in his volume which bears the intriguing title, "Disenchantment." These stories all display a keen observation of human nature, and in this story that has been adapted for the radio, listeners will find him at his best. "John Halifax, Gentleman."

v A hew recorded production purchased by the N.B.S. is an 'adaptation of the novel "John Halifax, Gentleman." This novel, though it is now some eighty years since it was first published with its provocative title, still holds a great appeal for many readers. The author, Mrs. Craik (Miss Dinah Maria Mulock), was a woman of remarkable ability, for at the age of twenty she was successfully established in London as a writer—no mean feat in those days. The theme of her novel has always been a popular one with readers and writers alike. It is a simple tale of success won by a poor, honest, and industrious working boy; the story illustrating the doctrine that the character of a true gentleman resides in integrity and nobility of purpose and not in birth or wealth. The scene of the novel gives an extraordinary picture of life in a small country town in the English countryside a century ago. The town that the author calls Norton Bury is Tewkesbury, where she spent a holiday in the summer of 1852 and in the sights and sounds of that town conceived her novel. Even the name of her hero she found on a tombstone in the Abbey graveyard. Readers of the novel and listeners to this serial will find interest in the fact that many of the places described in the book are still standing. The old flourmill, which the mob besieges and are successfully dispersed by John Halifax, is still standing over the Avon at Tewkesbury just as the Bowling Green and the Quakers' Burial Ground are still to be seen. The adaptation has been particularly well done and the production has action and colour, so that listeners will find this good entertainment.